North Korea And Iran—A Perfect Nuclear Alliance

Nuclear Terror: North Korea has detonated a bigger, better atomic bomb, and the U.S. government warns that Pyongyang could be testing for Iran. These two monstrous powers have hatred of America in common.

The underground detonation this week of a "miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously," in North Korea's description, makes no sense in the mindset of President Obama. Nor does the regime's charge of "outrageous" hostility against it by the U.S.

As Breitbart's Joel Pollak reminded us on Tuesday, the 2008 Obama campaign manifesto promised that "North Korea is an example where direct, tough diplomacy that lays out clear choices to rogue regimes for good and bad behavior can ... secure a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula."

In his 2010 State of the Union address, Obama boasted that "North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions." But sanctions are micro-targeted at about 100 entities and individuals.

Consider the fact that Jasper Kim of the Seoul-based Asia-Pacific Global Research Group this week told the BBC that the most effective sanctions were on luxuries such as caviar and designer trinkets — which the North Korean ruling class easily bypasses via Beijing.

Somehow, the combined diplomatic genius of Obama and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never, over four years, convinced the Chinese communists to stop sneaking in the baubles of the super rich.

This week's nuclear test is not disturbing only because of how it exposes "Obamaplomacy" as feckless in dealing with North Korea. A "senior American official" told the New York Times two weeks ago that "it's very possible that the North Koreans are testing for two countries" — the other country, of course, being Iran.

As U.S. nuclear weapons design experts Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman note in their history of nuclear proliferation, "The Nuclear Express," "North Korean scientists have turned up in Iran, assisting with nuclear test preparations" years ago.

What on earth could a 73-year-old Shiite cleric and a Stalinist in his 20s have in common — apart from sharing the title of "Supreme Leader" of their native land? The answer, of course, is that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and North Korea's Kim Jong Un both revile America as the leader of the free world, and under Obama see no real price to be paid in defying U.S. demands.

Neither care for their people. So sanctions — short of full economic warfare — accomplish nothing.

Moreover, as veteran Israeli war correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai pointed out Tuesday, the North Korean test shows Iran that it can "complete its nuclear program and then enter into real negotiations with the West from a position of power" — just as Pyongyang has done with the West for about 20 years.

North Korea is an icebreaker clearing the way for Iran's military nuclear ship, as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak once put it. And after North Korea and Iran, a Mideast arms race. That is the nuclear nightmare that began this week, which American strength could have helped prevent.

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